Fortress Of Freedom Board

Maurice Ali · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:29 pm Post subject:

I spent the evening archiving sound files, and I think my favorite was the sound of opening a can..... This is what I do in place of - fun.....

we need the sound files for our productions. And you guys thought is was just part of the ambience.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:30 pm Post subject:

One more thing about audio.....

We started ADR with Gianna a couple of months ago. This is dubbing and I recorded Gianna onto my blimp and then had the background added by a pro later and then spliced into the segment where background noise ruined the audio. You will never know anything when the show airs..... I am really getting into this right now, we only have one shot at it with the series and a couple of short films.

Gianna!

Maurice Ali · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:57 pm Post subject:

I contacted the CRTC in Ottawa and it seems that Donald's show should be certified by mid January. This gives me a schedule to do things.

What else..... I like the way women scowl at me when they don't get my humor. It is always a cute thing to watch.....

I am still downloading sounds for our productions, the latest is a car door closing. I bet you just thought it was normal to hear a car door close from far away...now I know better.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:04 pm Post subject:

I need models and I can't take the emotional turmoil of new girls off the street.

One plan is to go personally back to Ryerson and get some from the Fashion department.

Another is modelmayhem.com as most are just ordinary gals looking for a chance. I don't think this goes against the spirit of the philosophy especially if I make the overture.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:32 pm Post subject:

Well I just produced another pile of paper work going off to the CRTC tomorrow. How come I never see any of this stuff on TV..... Things are actually quiet as everyone gets ready for Christmas.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:54 pm Post subject:

Here is our usual but interesting statement for next year.

http://fortressoffreedom.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5053#5053

What I didn't say is that my biggest achillie's heal in all this was the massive loneliness here. I spend most of my day around people, but when I come to Fortress, if is a lonely place. It gets to you and made me question what on earth I was doing, just a short time ago. The more successful we get, the more lonely it gets. All of a sudden everything is more formal, not fun..... Anyway, I am committed and next year will tell all with regard to the future of Fortress. However, it is funny how I thought about all the problems that may torpedo the organization, loneliness was never one of them, well you learn to expect the unexpected.....

This weekend will be spent cleaning the house and on the editing workstation..... I can't blame most here for getting a bit distant lately, there is Christmas and such but turning Fortress into an on-going business is - quite frankly - boring stuff. I miss being friendly with people in the organization, now it is like being at any place of work in many ways..... Goodnight my friends.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:10 pm Post subject:

I finally finished archiving almost 1000 sounds for use in our videos and films.....

In other news - Don's TV show is getting a quick once over so I can give him the next generation of the show to show the family over the holidays. Don's show is our first to include HD footage though for now the show is in SD 4:3.....

Maybe not as lonely as in the last few days, funny how that can impact on you. Look, getting our trademark to the next level of acceptance would be a big deal for me, but for nobody else. Building the business is totally boring to people. The only way out of this is simply time. Airing Don's show should put us back on the "cool" map again, but I must admit that doing things for the second and third time becomes more of a job than a life altering experience. Hint: it is time to start getting back to the journalistic roots. If I can garner some more support for the video and film end and help with genuine delivery to broadcast, I can get effective help in that area, and that would free me up to handle the U.N. thing that still hangs over my head. That will be a tough nut to crack, how to get a "for profit corp." accepted in an arena that only wants NGOs. We may actually have to prove ourselves as a news agency instead..... There is more than one way to skin a cat - great fodder for a TV show.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:06 pm Post subject:

Don has his revised copy of the show. More and more I pine over the legalities and copyright issues almost ad nausium. We have great stories and I just don't wan't the thing tainted with some coplaint about copyright. I am a music publisher you know.....

I may take a look at After Effects from Adobe, the training requirement is steep, about one year on average to be proficient. I need to be there in 60 days if possible. We shall see or I will look for help.

Our goals get higher, the rewards become possible and the effort only gets worse...... Having said that, I am surprised at the easy way I am fitting in, where is the stress I hear about.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 5:53 pm Post subject:

Sending off the Christmas e-mails and calls to those who don't have e-mail.....

I am taking stock of what we have done and where we could go, nothing for sure and probably crash and burn, but I am really crossing my fingers now. Nothing could be closer to the truth.....

Anyway, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.....

meggen · Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 25 Location: TORONTO

Maurice Ali · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:29 pm Post subject:

Thanks Meggen!

In other news I was visiting with FOF folk and the surpise of how many people are now interested in FOF. Most are business folk and not in anyway trying to commit to anything, just funny how the interest is out there. Started with the banks a few weeks ago. Could be worse.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:02 pm Post subject:

Work has started on the Hyperventilation music video. I will wait until I hear back from the artist himself. I am pressed for time and tried to take the easy way out, but the dude has a killer track there and deserves my full attention. I think I have the concept nailed and will really tax our shooting ability as it revolves around optical illusions and effects, but it has to jibe with the meaning of the song.....

I can't believe that the bottle neck here at FOF is time, talent and creativity is here in megatons - It really is easy to shoot this stuff as the concepts and ideas are there already or come very easy.....

Oh, and for those old internet buddies of mine from years ago, sure I am not the same guy I was back then - on the internet at least. Fact is I am front man for an organization many have put much time into, have some dreams at stake here; and some have possible future employment opportunities connected with what they do here. I have to look the part, and actually, I am the part. I'd like to think I have integrity and the business acumen to have others become fellow stakeholders in some pretty ambitious projects we have planned here. This means setting an example, and some of my fellow "older folk" will know exactly what I mean. The character of an organization starts from the top down and I intend this organization to be of the highest standards of integrity, fairness, accountability; and also being good corporate citizens and thus "showing the way."

Maurice Ali · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:05 pm Post subject:

If anyone wants to know what I am really like:

http://fortressoffreedom.com/Guru.wmv

I made some minor revisions to the Variety Show which comes in at 28 minutes sans credits. I may actually slot some of the comedians at Dave's venue..... This show rocks folks, it is cool in an "indie" way and Toronto won't know what hit them when this thing airs.....

Yes we have been on ice for a little while but this coiled spring is ready to be unsprung. BTW, this is really looking good guys, and if we really get the "buzz" about us in 2008, I should have the business end in place to take advantage of it, that is my job right now.....

One other thing I did just now was to back up some files, like Don's show archived onto tape. Data on hard drives and flash cards can become corrupted and the effort to redo things far outweighs the hassle of backing up data on to a camcorder in the middle of the night. Yes it could happen that months of editing could just disappear with a hard drive crash or something as simple as a file corruption in the editor. True, AVID does backups (the so-called AVID attic) but you have to live the horror of this stuff just once to kow what has to be done regularly. I consider these backups - and they can only be done after waiting for all effects to be rendered (insider stuff there, you guys know what I mean) and then the real time backups to tape - the same as ironing alone..... I call it the "back up" blues.....or.....I am lonely at home and completely backed up..... Laughing

Maurice Ali · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:06 am Post subject:

This weekend is nothing but working on the editor. I spent a few hours on the TWENTY6HUNDRED show and got it down to about five hours and forty five minutes. This has to be compressed to thirty minutes and then we start to look at it..... Yikes.....

This year marks the year where the FOF way of doing things will be evaluated. We did things the usual way with our musicians and quite frankly got nowhere. I have the figures, first is that the actual numbers that listened to the individual artists could never support any real measure of sales or downloads. That is a no-brainer to me, but I tried with my "fresh eyes....." Mostly much of my end was vanities for everyone and some learning experience for myself. Any other company doing this would have been bankrupted and emotionally crippled by now. I pat myself on the back that we are not in this camp, and actually are garnering interest in the business community. The shows will tell the tale, that is where the audience is and that is only where we can really build on, given the number or artists and like logistics. Simply trying to hock CDs to make money will kill your spirit, any salesman will tell you this. It was interesting to see the retail segment implode this year, actually it was quite sad as I dealt with many managers in the field. FOF and it's other supporting companies are real retailers and I pay bucks to park our GST and credit accounts each month. Entry into this club really requires a "minimum" of thirty to forty thousand dollars of sales to even be bothered to deal with the government. So now you guys know why I was so easy with credit sales this year. We take the hard line next year as we are now on the radar scope.....

Remember that I see things from a different light as I am not a performer, things are quite matter of fact here. What the hell, back to the editor. It is fun though, to see people disappointed that I am still alive and kicking with the FOF and possibilities opening up. I am sure there are a few Maurice Ali voodoo dolls with pins stuck in them. Human nature is what it is.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 11:03 pm Post subject:

I spent much of the day with Shane doing final touch ups for his show. The show revolves around an interview with clips over the past few years and the mini-movie at the end. I am tired.....

I am downloading the final hour of HD footage into my editor.
We are actually all SD right now but I want that HD footage if we get distribution later one and we want that HD footage s the main track. The hardest part is having things dark enough for the PD170 and bright enough for the Canon. I think we threaded that needle barely, we shall see how well in post production. I also bought another Rode NTG2 microphone to replace that cheap AZDEN we were using so far. Yes, I am taking the audio seriously now and that should boost the productions significantly.

We have got to our limits with this project, but it looks like we may pull this off and make it to the end. This should happen in the next year.